• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

UNDERSTANDING RACIAL INEQUITY IN ALACHUA COUNTY Prepared by the University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR) (January 2018) Contents of Report Foreward ............................................................................. 4 Section I: Introduction ................................................................. 5 Section II: Alachua County’s Population .................................................. 8 Section III: Racial Inequity in Alachua County ............................................ 10 Section IV: Insights from the Housing, Transportation, and Neighborhood Supplement ........ 17 Section V: Factors and Forces Behind Racial Disparities in Alachua County .................. 25 Section VI: From the Views and Experiences of Minority Groups in Alachua County ........... 30 Section VII: General Conclusions ....................................................... 32 Data Collection ....................................................................... 33 Appendix A - Data Tables on Disparity Measures ......................................... 35 Appendix B - Maps ................................................................... 89 American Alligator at Paynes Prairie, Gainesville, Florida 3 FOREWARD For many years, racial disparities have made an impact on the lives of people in Alachua County, Florida. Many advocacy groups have been working diligently on improving conditions for minorities in order to reduce these disparities. A wealth of data exists exemplifying specific areas that may be helpful to these organizations. The following report provides a baseline of racial disparity data in the county, showing the differences between Whites and four minority groups: Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Other. With this baseline, future data has the potential to show changes and trends, illuminating the effects of programs attempting to address the myri- ad of issues that contribute to these disparities. We hope that the information contained in this report will be informative to residents of Alachua County and useful to the programs trying to make an impact. We look forward to the possibility of building on this report in the future with updated data on the indicators included as well as other indicators that may further shed light on racial inequities. We would like to thank the organizations who commissioned this report for giving us the opportunity to perform this work: Alachua County, Alachua County Public Schools, City of Gainesville, Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce, Santa Fe College, UF Health, and University of Florida. We would also like to thank the many people who contributed to the effort necessary to complete the report. Cynthia Clark moderated the focus group, and Mark House conducted the one-on-one interviews with community members and experts and compiled the information from both formats. UF Bureau of Economic and Business Research students and staff including Mark Girson, Hui Hui Guo, Art Sams, Anthony Chen, Nelsa Vazquez, and others collected data, performed quality control, and managed the project. We would also like to thank the community members and experts who participated in the focus group and one-on-one interviews, whose involvement made possible the qualitative component of this undertaking. Finally, we appreciate the work of the University of Florida Program for Resource Efficient Communities research team led by Hal Knowles and Lynn Jarrett, who collected, analyzed and reported on more in depth housing and transportation disparity issues in a separate volume. Hector H. Sandoval Project Director Understanding Racial Inequity in Alachua County 4 SECTION I: INTRODUCTION Racial inequity is a long-standing issue Business Research (BEBR) led this project in in many communities across the United collaboration with the University of Florida States, affecting the opportunities of minority Program for Resource Efficient Communities individuals and families. In March 2016, the (PREC). This document contains the main United Church of Gainesville and the Alachua results of this effort. Please let us know how County branch of the National Association for you are using the information contained in the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) this report by emailing United Way of North sponsored a weekend-long seminar to focus Central Florida at [email protected]. community efforts on inequities in the Alachua Main Goals County area. The seminar featured speakers from the Dane County, Wisconsin Race to Alachua County’s population is 19.8 percent Equity Project. This project collected existing Black/African American, 9.2 percent Hispanic, national, state, and local data documenting and 6.3 percent Asian. The county is home racial disparities in the county and comparing to two major educational institutions: the those disparities to Wisconsin and the United University of Florida, the state’s flagship States overall. Their study led to a community- university and a highly ranked public research wide focus on how their community can work university, and Santa Fe College, winner together to meet the challenge of narrowing of the 2015 Aspen Prize for Community the gaps in quality of life among all racial and College Excellence. Both attract top talent ethnic groups. and contribute to the racial and cultural diversity of the region; however, the growing A group of Gainesville, Florida achievement gap between disparate areas community leaders representing Alachua of Gainesville has compelled community County, Alachua County Public Schools, City leaders to examine racial, social, and of Gainesville, Gainesville Area Chamber of economic inequality at the local level. There Commerce, Santa Fe College, UF Health, and is a shared concern that the racial divisions University of Florida saw value in completing in Alachua County perpetuate disadvantage a similar project. Wishing to understand and and discrimination in many areas such as document racial inequity in Alachua County, employment opportunities, housing and this group called for the development of a transportation, public accommodations, baseline report grounded in quantitative education, and public benefits to findings to document and provide insights disenfranchised populations. about the extent, nature, and source of racial inequality in Alachua County. The The purpose of this report is to provide a University of Florida Bureau of Economic and comprehensive picture of the disparities in 5 Alachua County between each of the minority experts in racial inequity on each of the groups and Whites on several dimensions following topics: economic well-being, of human well-being, and to compare race educational achievement, family structure, and ethnicity disparities in Alachua County child welfare involvement, involvement in the to Florida and the nation. By gaining a justice system, health status, and housing and more thorough understanding of this issue, transportation. Conditional on the availability community leaders will be better equipped to of data, the outcome of this consultation influence institutional awareness, make policy resulted in the collection of 50 different recommendations and support initiatives that indicators. For each indicator, the most recent tackle the causes of these problems, resulting data were gathered for Whites as well as each in a reduction in these disparities. minority group: African-American, Asian, Hispanic, and a combined group of all other Methodology races. We compared each of the minority To compile a comprehensive data- groups to the non-Hispanic White population based picture of the racial disparities in in Alachua County, and calculated a disparity 1 Alachua County and to gain a deeper ratio to measure racial disparities. understanding of these disparities, BEBR Second, a focus group with Black/ utilized both a quantitative and qualitative African-American residents of Alachua approach. The collection of quantitative County was conducted. The goal of this part data provides a standardized method of of the project is to assess the perceptions, comparison across the different minority opinions, and experiences of Black residents groups. The qualitative data supplements the in the context of racial inequity. During the quantitative data by providing informative focus group, a series of slides were shown perceptions, experiences, and concerns of that detailed the extent and nature of racial Alachua County minority residents as well as disparities in the area. These slides showed the expertise of scholars in racial disparity. data collected on the seven dimensions We first collected data on a wide range mentioned above to motivate the discussion. of indicators representing several aspects of In general, the participants human well-being to provide a quantitative acknowledged that they face inequality on a baseline of racial disparity in Alachua County. daily basis. In particular, they mentioned that To accomplish this task, we consulted with ______________ 1 The disparity ratio is the value of an indicator for a particular ratio was calculated using the White population. minority group at a particular geographic level divided by the value of the same indicator for non-Hispanic Whites at the same geographic level. For some indicators, because we were unable to identify the non-Hispanic White population, the 6 the history of racism is an important factor Content contributing to the disparities and that current disparities in the education system and in Section II provides a snapshot of their

Load more

  98

Copy Link